Dear John,
I swear, I am going to stop texting your family. The last few times I have done so, someone lets me know that something bad has happened. First, your niece was hospitalized. Then your sister broke her arm or her shoulder. This time, I texted your brother's wife to offer to make tiramisu for their Easter celebration. She wrote back to let me know that they had just experienced a house fire. I guess there was maybe an electrical fire above their main bathroom. The ceiling is all gone and they have no electricity, and apparently everything smells like smoke. She seems like she still wants to have that Easter party, since she already has the ham.
I saw on FB that they are looking for a house to rent. My better nature (which you would definitely discourage) suggested that I offer to house them until their house is repaired. Not very practical, since the kids' school is 30 miles away. Then I thought...they could move in to your mom's and she could come and stay with me. Fortunately, I am getting better about making impulsive offers that I hope people say no to. Besides, I'm sure they can afford to rent somewhere while the house is fixed.
Your daughter is irritated by her college curriculum. She is offended that her 3 lectures and 2 labs consisting of 21 hours of weekly attendance is only worth 14 credit hours. She says she's going to take 9 hours of online classes this summer. We'll see how that goes.
Meanwhile, I think I may have the heart ablation surgery this summer. I've kind of tired of the stupid SVT episodes. I bought a smart watch to track my heart rate, but as usual...it can't admit that my heart is racing. At least it harasses me to get off my ass every few hours. The only problem is that the surgery didn't work for my sister, and I'm not sure whether that's going to be a genetic thing or random thing. They don't seem to know much about this whole nonsense. Any time I ask questions, the answers are unsatisfying. They sort of know the mechanism, but they definitely do not know the cause or triggers. Nor are they interested in finding out. Modern medicine, man. Great for some things, terrible for most. Anyway, having your heart race for an extended period of time is painful.
I had to restrain my inner boomer last weekend. The new neighbors in Norman's house were planting arbor vitaes along the fence line. Not sure why they think that's necessary due to the line of white pines we've got, but whatever. While they were out there, I wanted to go out and offer "help" - they needed a second spade, and they didn't water the trees in. But again...restraining those impulses! I stayed in my own lane. We'll see if the trees make it - it was nice and rainy a couple days this week.
As I was walking the dogs (to redirect my attention, as well as the dogs', since they did not appreciate all that activity out there), though, I was thinking that we must have planted over 50 or 60 trees in the last 20 years. From white pines, to spruces, to dogwoods, Japanese maples, a Gingko, a red bud, arbor vitaes, an ornamental cherry - lots and lots of trees. Of course, several of them didn't make it - soil issues, galls, the ones you singed by burning the prairie grass, but a lot of them are still kicking. So I feel like I'm doing a decent amount to aid our carbon footprint. That doesn't even count the bushes and other plants we've put in. I've added a bunch of bulbs, 3 peonies (2 of which were immediately dug up by something), an American lilac, a boxwood (or something - I can't remember. Again, I planted 3 and 1 survived) since you've been gone. When I see what pops up in the new bed, I'll get some photos. I got crocuses so far, and daffodils. The other bulbs are tulips and alliums. When I can get rid of all that stupid grass and get the patio and retaining wall under the deck redone, I think I'll put some more lilacs in front of the deck. I guess I should probably get the deck itself redone. The rails are pretty dried out, so they'll need to be replaced. It would be easier for someone to redo the deck and do the patio and retaining wall all at once. But I don't want to spend the ridiculous amount of money that will cost. Sigh.
Next weekend is Mom's weekend at S's school. I reserved a hotel for the wrong weekend, because the website had bad information. Now I have to stay 20 miles away, and S is worried that it's sketchy. I'm sure it's fine - I stop there for gas almost every time I go up there. Plus, I've stayed all over the place on my own. I think I'll be offended that she doesn't think I can handle myself. Anyway, there don't seem to be any major events for the weekend. We have to go to the bar. There's apparently a craft fair. But I don't think there's much else unless you belong to the mom's association, which I definitely do not. Maybe I should look that up.
Beyond that, I've got the cardiologist and electrocardiologist next week. I'm going to see Project Hail Mary with a former coworker (Ugh - why did I respond to that text?! Also, I'm not really that into the book.) Then Mom's Weekend. Then a wedding. I'm going to see some Christian concert for my friend's birthday. Her husband seems really worried that we're not her friends or something because he keeps paying for outings for us like we wouldn't do it otherwise. He bought us all gift cards for pedicures for Christmas, and now the concert. On the other hand, whenever I attempt to make plans for our group, it doesn't turn out well. Once, when I made plans to see U2, there was a riot (due to an unpopular judicial opinion) and the concert was cancelled. Then, last year, I planned for us to see Simple Minds with Modern English and Soft Cell and the entire amphitheater was EMPTY. There were maybe 200 people there. So I only make plans for myself now. I'll let S (or, apparently H's husband) take care of it. I did buy myself a ticket to see Spamalot. I've always wanted to go. Then my niece's college graduation, another wedding, and hopefully some kind of vacation. I wanted to take S on a road trip to Yellowstone, but since we're having a fucking war interrupting the oil industry, that may be off the table. We'll see how expensive gas gets this summer. Dumb ass motherfucker who thinks he can do whatever he wants with no repercussions - you would be irate. *DEEP BREATHS*
Missing you as always,
A
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